SALE OF WARSHIPS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 80, 6 April 1910, Page 11

SALE OF WARSHIPS.

MYSTERY OF A GERMAN TRANSACTION. According to the Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Mail, considerable mystery surrounds the sale of four iirstclass German turbine torpedo-boats, S lob, S 166, S 167, and S 168, to the Turkish Government. The boats are practically ready for delivery from the Schichau yard at Danzig, whero they were laid down in 1908, supposedly as part of the German construction programme of that year. S 166 recently executed a record run with a full complement of men and ammunition at thirty-six knots. The official announeomont of the sale alleges that the boats are rhe property of the Schichau yard, and describes the transaction as "fresh gratifying evidence of the German shipbuilding industry's successful competition with foreign yards." Surprise is expressed that the German Admiralty should have consented 4o the sale of torpedo-boats capab|b of thirtysix knots, especially as the quartet in question should actually have boerx placed in commission in the Imperial Navy by thi3 time. The Servian Government has given orders for 80,000 shells to the Rheinische i Metallwaren und Machinen Fabrik, and I contracts worth £200,000 for the recon- j struction of old artillery. German firms are also to receive orders for 150 machine i guns and 32,000 Mauser rifles as soon as | the new Servian loan is issued in France r.inn 0 " 113115 and ? re - also *° Supply ±.500,000 worth of railway materials. [A cable message received in February stated that thfc destroyers by Germany to Turkey were of indifferent design, Germany desiring to replace 'them with better boats.]

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